“Mmmmmm,” she hummed, willing to let that statement lie without clarification. She’d likely have broken anyone else who even barely intimated what her flag captain was suggesting, but they’d been together for some time and she trusted him. “Let’s say, if that is what happens, I’ll shed no tears.”

Hirau nodded, but his eyes narrowed slightly. “If, My Lady? You believe his story?”

“I believe there’s more here than the analysts have seen,” she said without committing. “So we will determine just what they’ve missed, yes?”

“As you command, My Lady.”

“As I command, indeed,” Misrem said, with no room for any doubt in her tone.

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 19

AEV Odysseus, Outer System, Kepler 452

► “Run passive scans,” Eric ordered as he fought the urge to puke all over his clean command from the aftereffects of transition.

They’d dropped into the outer limits of the system, so far out that technically the task force was still in interstellar space. The system primary, Kepler 452, was a G-class yellow dwarf barely visible from their position without the use of advanced instrumentation. He hoped they were far enough out not to be detected if there were an Imperial presence in the system, but at least he was certain they could make a run for it in a pinch.

“We’re deploying the squadron in a large array to maximize our scanner take,” Miram told him. “So far, there’s no sign of anything truly unusual.”

Eric kept his face even. He was honestly a little disappointed. He’d hoped to strike pay dirt with their first shot, of course, even if that was unlikely. The take from the Auto’s discovery of the gravity observation construct and heliobeam had narrowed their search, but Eric was well aware that it was still a big damned galaxy.

“Have we located 452b?” he asked, genuinely interested.

Kepler 452b was the designation of the likely Earth-type exoplanet discovered in the early twenty-first century. “Earth type” meaning that the world was likely rocky in nature and within a reasonable range of Earth’s size. In this case, the planet was supposedly 60 percent larger than Earth and within the liquid-water range from its star.

“Roger that,” Miram said. “Picked it out fast on the gravity scanners, confirmed with scopes.”

“We have any resolution on it yet?”

“Not yet, sir. Give us an hour,” Miram replied.

Eric nodded, knowing that the job was going to be a long one no matter how he cut it.

No matter what, at least we’ll learn something.

He checked the helio database from his station, looking for the location of the closest precursor point of interest to their coordinates. He quickly found an installation located on a planet about forty light-years from Kepler 452. Quite a distance, of course, but in galactic terms right next door. That would be their next destination, should they discover nothing at 452.

►►►

AEV Bellerophon